Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!killer!vector!telecom-request From: USEREAFJ%mts.rpi.edu@itsgw.rpi.edu Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: (none) Message-ID: Date: 5 Aug 88 04:25:22 GMT Sender: chip@vector.UUCP Lines: 63 Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp (USENET Telecom Moderator) X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 8, issue 122, message 1 X-Submissions-To: telecom@xx.lcs.mit.edu (Mailing List Coordinator) X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp (USENET Telecom Moderator) In reference to a post by Patrick Townson in Telecom V.8 #112, which dealt with the problems of reassigning a Bell PIN number after his card was stolen, I have found that dealing with the local Bell (or Heaven forbid!) GTE company usually gets the best results. - When my wallet was stolen in New Haven some time ago, I immediately called Southern New England Telephone to report the card stolen. I then called New York Telephone to get my cards with them changed as well. SNET took care of it over the phone. The rep. at the Customer Service office called me back at the number they had for me in their records, asked me what number I wanted, and assigned it to me. It worked fine a few hours later. The actual card came in the mail about a week afterwards. By the time I got to NY Tel, they had left the office for the day, so I decided to call AT&T to have them do it. AT&T explained that they couldn't let me choose the PIN over the phone, no matter what, and that I would still have to call NY Tel to get my "local" PIN assigned. After I asked the AT&T rep what the difference was, he said that it has to be activated locally by NY Tel, and that AT&T couldn't do it. I realized that this was nonsense, so I didn't bother with him any more. The next day, I called NY Tel, and they issued me a new PIN (which I requested), and the number worked about 1 hour afterwards. About 3 weeks later, I got AT&T cards for both the Connecticut number and the New York numbers, with the PINs assigned to me by both of the Bell Co.s. (I know...SNET wasn't a "real" Bell co...). Talking to AT&T seemed to be a waste of time, since the Bells seem to be the ones who assign and cancel the PINs. This experience proved useful to me when I was on vacation, and made "excessive" calling card calls trying to reach a busy number. (Over 32 calls or so in one hour tips off the people at your local Bell and they turn your PIN off if they can't reach you, usually...). New York Tel temporarily cancelled my PIN, and I was pretty upset since I did indeed need to use it a lot. I called AT&T (since NY Tel was closed), and they said that I would have to be issued a new one. Rather than bother with that again, I called NY Tel's emergency business office number, and they asked me what my old PIN was and said that it would be back in service by 6AM PDT. The next morning, the card worked, and I hadf NY Tel put a note on my account that I do tend to make "excessive" calling card calls and that in the future they should SPEAK to me before cancelling my card. (I never carry the cards with me, so it's hard for someone to get the PIN, although not impossible...). Thus, the local Bells seems to police calling card use as well, and seem to be much more in control (if not in TOTAL control) of the calling card system. AT&T appears to mere~rly ask the Bell Co. to assign cards for their customers, which will then work over the Bell System calling card their customers, which will then work over the Bell System calling card network. In the event of theft or fraud, it's the Bell Co. who cancels or suspends your card, not AT&T. I would suggest that anyone having trouble with their calling card should talk to their local company first. I don't mean to criticize AT&T, yet I would think they would be better off telling their customers to simply call the local business office and admit that some things are not under their control. - -Doug - P.S. Instead of allowing any digit to be used as the 2nd digit in an area code (which seems to be established plan to use when we run out of area codes), why not use inward dialing codes which are not used in any area. IE, if no area uses +077, why not make that an area code an allow customers to dial it directly? Or would that get too confusing since 1 and 0 are also used to designate toll and operator assited calls as well? (IE, how will 0-077-456-1234 be interpreted? Or 1-103-999-8888....) Silly question, I guess...:-)